Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link If there’s a perfect time to read about the English monarchy and all its drama, well, it’s probably right now. Her Royal Happiness is low on the angst without glossing over the big ticket issues. Classism, racism, colonialism—Keeley touches on them all, without ever delving too far into seriousRead More
Danika review Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I have to say, although I love the illustration of Raquel, I don’t think cover does justice to this being a horror novel. I got sports vibes from it. I didn’t notice the little monster claws/legs in the background on first viewing. But this is definitely horror, withRead More
Marieke reviews Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link This book has been on the edges of my radar for a long time, and I’m not sure why I never got to it before now. Luckily I picked it when I was browsing through my ereader for something that might help to break my reading slump, withRead More
Danika reviews Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan
Zara Hossain is Here surprised me. This is a short book, and it’s written in a way that feels pared down to the essentials. When the story begins, Zara is experiencing Islamophobic harassment from the star football player at school, but she has a strong network and friends and family that supports her. This harassmentRead More
Kayla Bell reviews Love is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Love is an Ex-Country is part memoir, part essay collection. It touches on a variety of topics, from racism to queerness to fatphobia to Arab identity, while always keeping an engaging, almost playful tone. There are many reasons why it worked for me so well. Before I getRead More
Mo Springer reviews The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Trigger Warning: This book has scenes of sexual assault. Gilda starts out her journey as Girl, running from a plantation in which she was a slave and her mother died. She is taken in by a vampire, who gives her her name and gives her longevity, a lifeRead More
Danika reviews Love is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar
I can’t resist a book with a Carmen Maria Machado blurb, so I picked this up knowing very little about it. In theory, this is about Randa Jarrar’s road trip across the U.S., inspired by Tahia Carioca’s cross-country road trip. It took place in 2016 as a way to re-engage with her country, trying toRead More
Danika reviews Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Images of women flaming like torches adorn and define the borders of my journey, stand like dykes between me and the chaos. It is the images of women, kind and cruel, that lead me home. Audre Lorde is a name that looms large in lesbian literature, in Black history, and in her legacy in poetry.Read More
Danika reviews In the Silences by Rachel Gold
While Rachel Gold usually writes about gender and sexuality, In the Silences expands this by also tackling race. Although it does have a non-binary, genderfluid main character who is discovering and accepting their gender identity, it is just as much about Kaz learning about race, racism, and whiteness. While I originally was a bit worried about aRead More
Marthese reviews Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
“We’re not allowed to touch any of them, no matter what they do to us” Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley was a difficult book to read, but an important one. While it is a fiction book, it is realistic; it could have happened. I found this book at the library. It hadn’t beenRead More